Olivia Smart (born 1 April 1997) is a British-Spanish ice dancer, who currently competes with Tim Dieck for Spain. She previously represented Spain partnered with Adrián Díaz. With Díaz, Smart was the 2021 Skate Canada International bronze medalist, a four-time Challenger Series medalist, and a three-time Spanish national champion. They represented Spain at the 2022 Winter Olympics.
With former partner Joseph Buckland, she is a three-time British national junior champion (2012–14), and competed at three World Junior Championships, reaching the top ten in 2014. As well, she competed on the fifteenth series of ITV's Dancing on Ice, partnered with Nile Wilson.
Personal life
Olivia Smart was born on 1 April 1997 in Sheffield, England. She attended Sheffield High School for Girls. Olivia's Trains - a model railway shop in the city - is named after her. She became a Spanish citizen in July 2017.
Skating career
Partnership with Buckland
Smart teamed up with Joseph Buckland in 2010. They made their JGP debut in autumn 2011, ranking thirteenth in Austria and twelfth in Estonia. They came in seventeenth at their first World Junior Championships, held in Minsk in March 2012. In the 2012–2013 season, the duo missed the JGP series and finished twenty-second at the 2013 World Junior Championships in Milan.
In 2013–2014, Smart/Buckland placed seventh at both of their JGP assignments, Poland and the Czech Republic, and finished tenth at the 2014 World Junior Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Smart/Buckland moved to the senior level in the 2014–2015 season. In October 2014, they placed fourth at the Ondrej Nepela Trophy, an ISU Challenger Series event. In November, they won silver medals at the International Cup of Nice and NRW Trophy before taking the British national title in the absence of longstanding champions Coomes/Buckland. Smart/Buckland withdrew from the 2015 European Championships before the short dance, Buckland having fallen ill with gastroenteritis. The duo went on to place twenty-seventh at the 2015 World Championships in Shanghai, China. Following that season, they split.
2016–2017 season: Debut of Smart/Díaz
On 13 December 2015, it was announced that Smart had teamed up with Spanish ice dancer Adrián Díaz and that they wished to represent Spain. On 15 January 2016, Smart announced that the British skating association had released her and that she and Díaz would train in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, under Marie-France Dubreuil, Patrice Lauzon, and Romain Haguenauer.
Making their international debut, Smart/Díaz took silver behind Pogrebinsky/Benoit at the Lake Placid Ice Dance International in late July 2016. They later competed at three ISU Challenger Series events, placing fourth at the 2016 U.S. International Classic, sixth at the 2016 CS Autumn Classic International, and sixth at the 2016 CS Finlandia Trophy, before winning gold at the Open d'Andorra.
Smart/Díaz finished second to Hurtado/Khaliavin at the Spanish Championships. As a result, they were not nominated for the 2017 European Championships.
Smart/Díaz took silver in February at the Bavarian Open. Later that month, Federación Española Deportes de Hielo (FEDH) selected them to compete at the 2017 World Championships, the main Olympic-qualifying competition. The two placed sixteenth in the short dance, nineteenth in the free dance, and eighteenth overall at the event in Helsinki, Finland. Their result allowed Spain to send one ice dancing team to the Olympics.
2017–2018 season
In July 2017, FEDH announced that Spain's Olympic spot would go to the team which received the highest combined score at the 2017 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb and Spanish Championships.
Smart/Díaz began their season on the Challenger Series, placing seventh at the 2017 U.S. International Figure Skating Classic and fourth at the 2017 Autumn Classic International. Making their Grand Prix debut, they placed sixth at the 2017 Skate Canada International in October. In December, they placed fifth at the 2017 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb, scoring 4.18 points less than Hurtado/Khaliavin. Later that month, they won the Spanish national title by a 3.23-point margin, resulting in a final deficit of 0.95 points. On 17 December 2017, FEDH announced that Hurtado/Khaliavin would compete at the European Championships and Olympics while Smart/Díaz would be assigned to the 2018 World Championships. They finished twelfth at the event in Milan, Italy.